I am back at work (kill me) and I have some time to write, so here we are! Chunin Exams!! Thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows 3 I am sorry it took so long - I have been trying to get this done since August.
Kimiko leaned on the edge of the old, red, bridge, occasionally throwing her senbon at Sasuke who did his best to catch it with his Sharingan activated and then throw it back. She occasionally attempted a genjutsu as well just to throw him off, but his Sharingan easily saw through it.
Naruto sat next to them, flipping through the latest version of the Bingo Book and loudly proclaiming how he would defeat each enemy while Kimiko or Sasuke added their own comments (usually Kimiko complimented his unorthodox thinking while Sasuke pointed out his flaws, but at least they were talking).
Kakashi-sensei appeared, holding three papers in front of him. "Chunin Exams," he said after his students chorused a "Good morning, sensei!" with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
"I have recommended all three of you. However, the decision is up to you if you don't feel ready to participate. You can try again in 6 months. These exams are known to be deadly, so only compete if you are certain."
Naruto and Sasuke grabbed their papers eagerly, but Kimiko hesitated, biting her lip. "Sensei, if we pass, would they split up the team?" Naruto frowned. "They wouldn't split us up. We're Team 7! The best team ever!" He argued.
"Usually, Genin teammates are split when they become Chuunin, even if just one member of the squad passes," Kakashi-sensei began. "However, your year of genin was chosen very specifically. No one is going to split up the Ino-Shika-Cho team, for example. You may occasionally be selected for other missions, but they would most likely keep you together." In your case, Kakashi added silently, it's because you have the last Uchiha that has to be with me and I have the best shot beyond the Hokage at subduing the Nine-Tails before anything terrible happens, but still.
Looking reassured, Kimiko grabbed her paper and signed it with a flourish.
"Report to the Academy, third floor, at 9am tomorrow. Take the rest of the day to think about it."
"You mean to do research on possible opponents, come up with strategies, and learn more about the exam?" Kimiko asked, because both boys had already signed their papers as well and looked annoyed they had to wait.
"Not research." Naruto groaned. Kakashi fondly ruffled his kunoichi's hair, causing her to pout. "You're thinking like a real kunoichi." Kimiko practically glowed from the praise as Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
"I'll research possible opponents." Naruto offered quickly. "They come from all over the place, right? So they should be in the village. I'll go find them."
"Are you just going to wander the village? Naruto!" Kimiko called after him exasperatedly, but he was already gone.
"I'll do strategy. You research the exam." Sasuke leaped over the edge of the bridge and sauntered away. One of his stalkers audibly sighed from the bushes, causing Kimiko's eyebrow to twitch.
"Let's meet up for lunch after. Oh, that's a great idea Kimiko!" She muttered to herself, exasperated at the boys. To cheer herself up, she used her new genjutsu, "Hell-Viewing Technique" - a C-Rank that showed the target's current fear, on Sasuke's stalker. It did help Kimiko's mood slightly to hear her squealing and running away. At least when Hinata stalked Naruto, she was polite about it.
—--
Her grandmother cooked Kimiko's favorite meal and packed her bag with nutritious rice balls, ration bars, and waterskins for the "physical/survival" round. It had historically been some kind of team event in a specific environment. She helped Kimiko sharpen weapons, clean her undermesh, and talked with Kimiko about her own Chunin Exam experience. It was a little strange, remembering her grandma has been a young kunoichi once.
Remember Kimiko. The only people you can trust is your team. They are relying on you to do whatever it takes to get them through. She had said seriously, an uncharacteristically dark look in her eye as she wished Kimiko good night. Whatever it takes.
She met up with her team outside the Academy, shaking off the dark dreams from her nerves. Their familiar chakra signatures were comforting, and she begrudingly thanked Kakashi-sensei for constantly training her on her chakra sense. She let them know about the three rounds, and Sasuke chimed in with strategies they could use in the first and second round. Then Naruto told them about his one encounter with a village from the Sand.
"You should have seen him, Kimiko. He was short but he was way scarier than his teammate - what shinobi wears makeup anyway? - and he made him put Konohamaru down, which was good because I was about to attack him. And Sasuke was there acting like he's cool when he's so not - "
"Shut up loser, you would have been smashed to the dirt if I hadn't been there." Sasuke snarked. It might have been Kimiko's imagination, but there didn't seem to be as much bite in the insult as there used to be.
"As if. You would have been in the dirt after witnessing my awesomeness." Naruto shot back good-naturedly.
"We're all going to be in the dirt if we keep arguing." Kimiko pointed out, cutting off the ribbing before they started actually pissing each other off. The crowd ahead of them was beginning to move, indicating the doors had been opened. They had arrived early, which was obviously the plan of other teams who wanted a good position in the intelligence round judging by how many Genin were present.
Luckily, the other ninja also didn't want to be pressed against each other, and every group had a nice wide berth of space as they walked. However, just as Kimiko was appreciating this, some complaints began to sound ahead. The progress forward halted, and a couple of groups began to leave, cursing angrily.
"What's that all about?" Naruto wondered.
"I'll go see." Kimiko slipped away from the group, confident her team would be keeping an eye on her. Her snake taijutsu was perfect for nimbly moving through the crowd, and she challenged herself with how many teams she could slip by without them noticing. Not as many as she would like, but she did succeed with some, and she marked them in her head. A team from the sound, a few leaf Genin including Ino, Chouji, and Kiba (though she was sure Kiba would have smelled her if there wasn't a crowd), a hidden rain team, and a hidden waterfall team were some that she noticed didn't even look up as she squeezed by.
She observed off to the side as people argued with some leaf shinobi guarding a door on the second floor. She was surprised to see Lee, especially when he got pushed back like he was a chump. His teammates, who she had briefly seen once or twice during her morning training, were with him. Acting incompetent? Interesting…Surely the Hyuga had seen through the genjutsu already, so it was an act.
She made her way back to her team and reported what she had found.
"We should just slip by and head to the third floor. Anyone who didn't see through this isn't worth fighting anyway." Sasuke decided.
"Oi, who made you leader?" Naruto said defensively.
"Do you have a different idea, Naruto?" Kimiko asked patiently before Sasuke could respond.
"We…don't want to waste our time fighting these guys, so we should just go to the third floor ourselves." Naruto said decisively.
"That's what I just said, idiot." Sasuke said, his eyebrow twitching.
"I said it better." Naruto crossed his arms petulantly. Sasuke seemed to determine this was another battle not worth fighting, though it looked like it took all of his restraint to do so.
Team 7 made their way to the third floor without any incidents, though Kimiko did notice TenTen whispering something urgently to Lee as they walked; Lee's eyes were alight with fire as he stared at her team, and Kimiko felt a shiver go over her like she had just missed a brush with death. Lee sometimes made her feel that way though.
Kakashi-sensei was waiting for them at the doors, looking like he had been standing there casually for hours even though he most likely appeared a second before they got there.
"So you all decided to show up?" He asked, his eye lazily roaming over them. They nodded.
"That's good, because if any of you had decided not to, none of you would be able to compete." He announced. Kimiko stiffened, surprised. His eye stayed on her for an extra second, and she knew that he hadn't told Sasuke or Naruto because he wanted her to make the decision on her own. Part of her appreciated his subtlety, both personally and as a kunoichi. She was partly annoyed that he thought she would back down from the challenge.
"Well, I wish all three of you luck. Don't do anything stupid - people die in these exams. They aren't worth dying for." He advised. He waited for them to all nod their assent before he gave them a rare eye smile. "I expect to see all three of you in the final round. I'm proud of how far you have come." He disappeared in a swirl of leaves before they could respond, and damnit if that sadistic scarecrow didn't make Kimiko feel all warm inside.
"Alright! Let's make it to the finals!" Naruto said eagerly, launching himself at the double doors. Sasuke took the other door, and together Team 7 entered the Chunin Exams.
The room was intimidating to say the least. Kimiko pulled her chakra sense around herself like a protective cloak, focusing on her teammates as the waves of hostility, attempts at killer intent, and strange sensations washed over her.
"Hey!" She was distracted by Kiba Inuzuka approaching, followed by Team 9. Team 10, minus Ino, shuffled after. He was wearing his signature hoodie and signature Akamaru of course, who also greeted them with a happy yip. However, she was distracted from greeting them because she finally found Ino, who was draping herself over Sasuke and he looked quite murderous.
"Please get off of my teammate, Ino. We agreed not to fight before the Exams and I would really hate to break that rule." Kimiko said pleasantly as Naruto moved to eagerly greet Chouji and Shikamaru.
Ino narrowed her eyes at Kimiko. "I knew it. You acted all casual in the Academy so you could be put on the same team as Sasuke, and now that he's your teammate you've been trying to make your move!"
Kimiko stared at her, her brain trying to compute her leaps in logic - or lack thereof. "I honestly don't really understand what you just said. But if you don't get off of him I'm not the one who is going to murder you - he will."
"She's not worth my time." Sasuke said, and he might as well have stabbed her the way she finally wilted off his back.
"What a drag. The rookies are all here." Shikamaru drawled.
"Surprised they let a deadlast like you into the room." Kiba jabbed at Naruto, who puffed up angrily.
"Just wait, dog, I'll wipe the floor with you!" Naruto shot back.
"Hey, hey," a new voice cut in, unfamiliar to Kimiko. "You guys are all rookies, right? You're kind of making a scene." The voice was friendly, but as his chakra washed over Kimiko she felt…nothing. As Ino demanded his name and he explained how he had failed the exam multiple times (absently, her mind agreed with Shikamaru - he wasn't much of an "expert" if he kept failing), she tried to figure out what was setting her on edge.
He seemed friendly, even answering questions for Sasuke about different ninja(she also made a mental note of the "scary" kid, Gaara). He was dressed normally, he was a Leaf ninja, and nothing about him stood out.
Maybe that's the problem. He's so…average. It might have been Kakashi-sensei's paranoia creeping in ("Look underneath the underneath!" He would say pleasantly as he threw illusioned kunai at her face), and if it wasn't for her chakra sense she might not have noticed but in a room full of ninja, she got nothing from him. Not like he was suppressing his chakra, just …. Like she didn't even want to notice him. His chakra wasn't cold or warm, spiked or smooth, just…there. It was strange. It could be nothing, but Kimiko made a note not to trust him completely. No one but my team. She thought firmly.
Her danger sense suddenly spiked, and she stepped closer to Sasuke and Naruto as the Sound Village team attempted to murder Kabuto for…eh, Kimiko hadn't really been paying attention. She scolded herself for that.
Kabuto neatly dodged the kunai and leaned back to avoid the follow up punch from the creepy, shorter ninja in the heavy cloak. Kimiko clocked them as one of the teams that hadn't noticed her, but apparently what they lacked in awareness they made up for in combat prowess. Kimiko was absolutely sure Kabuto had dodged the punch, but to her shock, Kabuto's glasses cracked and he fell to his knees, vomiting.
Before the rookies could make the decision to help or not and a full on brawl could be started, their proctor and a team of Chunin appeared.
"LISTEN UP MAGGOTS!" The intimidating, scarred man roared. "I'm only going to say this once." Naruto opened his mouth, probably to argue about the maggot comment, and both Sasuke and Kimiko quickly covered his mouth as Ibiki Morino sent them all to randomized seats and then explained the rules to them.
Why not just give us the 10th question? Kimiko mused. And why are we allowed 5 chances for cheating? If we tried to cheat in the Academy, Iruka-sensei would've kicked us to the moon.
Kimiko looked over the questions, dismayed to find that she could probably only answer one of them - maybe two if she guessed. They got progressively harder as the exam continued too. I didn't realize the intelligence portion was going to be so difficult! There's no way Naruto will know any of these. It basically forces us to cheat. The epiphany hit her like a kick to the face.
Of course! It's not just an intelligence exam - it's intelligence-gathering! That means…She glanced around surreptitiously, and was pleased to note that a few genin were quickly filling in answers. The answers are here. It's just up to me to get them.
She still wasn't sure what the 10th question was - maybe they even got the question through the intelligence gathering. She wasn't worried about Sasuke - he was behind her, but she would bet anything he was just using his Sharingan to copy and had probably figured out the test a few minutes ago. She wasn't sure how either of them were going to get the answers to Naruto, but she had to tackle one problem at a time. Mainly, how she was going to get the answers.
"Can I go to the bathroom?" Naruto asked suddenly.
"You seriously can't hold it?" Ibiki asked. Kimiko thought he might be humoring the response just from the sheer gall Naruto had to address him.
"Actually, I need to go too. Nerves." A genin dressed in all black said sheepishly.
"For the love of - " Ibiki looked like he was deciding whether or not to just kick them out there, then sighed. "Fine. Orange and then black. You try any funny business, you'll be immediately kicked out." He snarled. His look and accompanying killing intent was enough for Kimiko to feel like she needed to pee, but she wasn't feeling suicidal today and so she didn't ask to go third.
She put her teammate out of her mind for a moment - How was she, a genjutsu specialist, supposed to gather information in an open area? It's not like her Hell-Viewing technique would be useful, or throwing senbon at other Genin. How are the other teams getting information?
The Hyugas, of course, would use their Byakugan. She could see Akamaru sitting on Kiba's head, so she assumed he was fine. Shino was probably smart enough to answer himself, plus he could probably use his bugs to go find information. In fact, they were ridiculously suited to the task. What about Lee and his female teammate…Kimiko searched her mind but could only remember Lee mentioning her expertise with weaponry.
She stretched her neck - She was actually sitting pretty close to Lee who was…writing down answers? How the hell was he getting answers?
Oh, that's brilliant. Casting her gaze around him, she saw his teammate very subtly manipulating mirrors to show the answers. Now, that was a genjutsu she could use.
She waited patiently for the next time there was a distraction, just like her snake taijutsu taught her to wait for the opportunity to strike. It turned out to be Naruto and his Chunin guard returning from the bathroom, and as the genin switched placed for bathroom duty and a different Chunin followed the sand genin, she focused her chakra on the weapon user, careful not to put too much lest she be noticed by her or the Chunin guards. A few seconds later, the mirrors shifted until Kimiko could see a filled in answer sheet from one of the genin who had started the test writing in the answers.
Now to get as many answers as possible before my chakra for the perception genjutsu runs out, or one of her teammates signals her somehow. She was extremely pleased with herself that she got all nine answers, holding the genjutsu significantly longer than she had been able to in the fight against Haku. We are so much stronger. She thought happily. When she finally released the jutsu and looked around the room again, she was surprised to also find Naruto writing. How did he…I should have known. She thought fondly, wondering why she had even been worried about him in the first place. He was Konoha's #1 unpredictable ninja, after all.
"45 minutes!" Ibiki barked, and pencils hastily hit the desk as the prospective Chunin turned their attention to their proctor. "Time for the 10th question. However, there is a special rule."
Kimiko listened with growing horror as Ibiki stated that the candidates are free to choose whether or not they want to try and solve the tenth question. If they opt out, the entire team will fail. If they choose to answer the question but get it wrong, they will be barred from taking the Chūnin Exams forever.
"That's bogus!" Was the general uproar from the crowd. Kimiko agreed with them. How could one question be that important? She imagined them all going to Kakashi-sensei and explaining they could never be Chunin. Could he actually do that? She bit her lip as she thought. What was this a test of? By choosing to forfeit, would Ibiki see that as being considerate of their comrades or leaving them? Is the "wise" choice, trying again next year, the correct choice, or staying to brave the odds?
Naruto answered the question for her as his hand slowly went into the air, and then, in typical Naruto fashion, made the loudest noise possible as he declared to the room as a whole his dream to be Hokage, and how he would never back down.
Kimiko watched in amazement as some of the Genin that had looked a second away from forfeiting sat up straighter and stayed in their seats. Naruto…she thought. I don't know if you're brave, or dumb, or both.
"Well? Is anyone else leaving?" A few people shifted in their seats, but stayed resolute. Ibiki closed his eyes, sighed exasperatedly, and said, "You all…pass."
"Yatta!" Naruto cheered, along with a few others. Kimiko let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. Leave it to Naruto to shine in the intellect test of all things, she mused, focusing on regaining her chakra as the uproar from the mind games Ibiki played filled the room.
She was distracted from her meditation as a purple blur broke open the window, accompanied by smoke and fireworks. She thought she saw some smoke to the side too, but the purple screaming Jonin was more than enough to distract her.
Wait…isn't she the dango shop lady?
How did Naruto get the answers? Type your guesses when you leave your review! What did you think of Kimiko's solution? Lots of love, see you next chapter - The Forest of Death!
